1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to encoding moving picture data, and more particularly, to a moving picture encoding apparatus and method skipping intra prediction in encoding mode determination using rate-distortion costs and determining an encoding mode at high speed.
2. Discussion of Related Art
H.264 is a new video coding standard and referred to as “Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC).” Similar to conventional video coding standards, the H.264 standard sets a block having 16×16 pixels to a single macroblock but employs variable block-based motion estimation capable of dividing the macroblock into variable-sized blocks. In addition, the standard enables quarter pixel-based motion compensation, and more accurate motion estimation and compensation using multiple reference frames. Furthermore, there is a function of intra prediction in a pixel domain that is lacking in the conventional video coding standards, so that similarity can be predicted using adjacent blocks in the same frame, thus increasing the compression rate.
A method for encoding a moving picture according to the H.264 standard involves performing inter prediction or intra prediction. Each prediction has a variety of encoding modes and requires performing an operation according to each encoding mode and then selecting the encoding mode having the smallest rate-distortion cost. Thus, the amount of calculations actually performed by a video compression system is enormous.